Susan Granger’s review: “Super Size Me” (Roadside Attractions/Samuel Goldwyn Films)
I’m not sure if anything will cure me of a fast-food addiction when I’m in a hurry, but this darkly comic, persuasive documentary certainly made me vow to stick to sensibly smaller portions of the unhealthy, highly processed, high-fat foods. Morgan Spurlock is a healthy, amiable West Virginian who now lives in New York with his vegan girlfriend. Horrified by the obesity epidemic that plagues the United States, he decided to go on an all-McDonald’s Super Sized diet for breakfast, lunch and dinner for 30 days to prove that fast-food is bad for your health. In addition, he opted not to exercise. His travels took him to 20 cities, including the site of McDonald’s first store in California. Along the way, he interviews junk-food addicts. And you’ll be horrified by what goes into making a Chicken McNugget. Consuming pancakes and sausages in the morning and Double Quarter Pounder combo meals late at night, he gained over 25 pounds and experienced mood swings, loss of libido, high cholesterol and blood-sugar levels, plus severe liver damage. His internist, Dr. Daryl Isaacs, compared the all-Mac diet to Nicolas Cage’s terminal alcoholic binge in “Leaving Las Vegas.” Less heavy-handed and confrontational than Michael Moore (“Roger & Me”), Spurlock adopts Moore’s irreverently humorous, easy-going style of agitprop film-making, delving into pervasive advertising, school lunch programs and corporate responsibility, noting, “My experiment may have been a little extreme, but not that crazy. Some people eat (McDonald’s) every day.” That cues Queen’s “Fat Bottomed Girls,” along with amusing animation. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Super Size Me” is a hilarious yet horrifying 9. Size matters.
